America's Most Pressing Foreign Policy Issue

Although it does not command the attention of a large part of Washington’s foreign policy elite, the most pressing foreign policy issue facing the Nation may well be that of illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is seen as a domestic policy issue, and it certainly is one. But when it comes to illegal immigration, there is no clear line between foreign and domestic policy. On the one hand, the challenge of having uncounted millions of undocumented aliens working, residing, and having families in the United States simply has not been dealt with head-on. On the other hand, America has long devoted its, time, energy, personnel and financial resources to the development or reconstruction of other nations, whether in Africa, southeastern Europe or the Middle East and Central Asia. Yet it is the lopsided economic condition of so many states south of America’s border that has led to the mass migration that is now seen as a major domestic challenge for Washington.